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Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Hjalmarsson Extends 5 Years $20.5 Million

Well, Stan Bowman is at it again. He's locking more players and building his core. The thing is, I didn't know or believe the Hawks were going to do that. Hjalmarsson has shown at times inconsistent play. In other words, he has room to grow. The Hawks believe in his growth and rewarded him as such.

Stan Bowman isn't going to lock up a player like Hammer unless he confers with Coach Quenneville and other members of the brass which would include Scotty Bowman. I did feel that Hjalmarsson could have gotten that amount after the season from the free agent market, and perhaps the Hawks didn't feel they could replace a talent like Hjalmarsson and didn't want to play the "wait and see" game.

Niklas is only 26 yrs old and already has 4 + years in the league (306 NHL games so far). Niklas plays in the second pairing and plays good minutes. It was thought that his offensive numbers would take a hike up, but what we must remember is,...he truly is a stay at home defenseman.

With Keith, Seabrook, Crawford, Sharp, Hossa and Bickell signed up past the 2014-15 season, this leaves only a few solid core players  (Toews and Kane) and a few promising players to re-sign.

We know this for certain....Stan Bowman has been a busy man this summer. Resting his laurels hasn't been one of his summer activities.


These are Hjalmarsson's Blackhawks stats only.
2007-2008BLACKHAWKS13011-21300050.0
2007-2008ROCKFORD ICEHOGS-AHL474913-83120
2008-2009BLACKHAWKS2112340000156.7
2008-2009ROCKFORD ICEHOGS-AHL52216181253201
2009-2010BLACKHAWKS7721517920001623.2
2010-2011BLACKHAWKS8037101339000644.7
2011-2012BLACKHAWKS6911415914000651.5
2011-2012SWEDEN-WC-A803302000
2012-2013BLACKHAWKS4628101522000434.7
NHL TOTALS30694756481080012543.5






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